i was curious if anyone had any suggestions. i'm still going between the radeon 9800 pro and the nvidia 5900 ultra, i know the ati has better performance (barely) and you get that extra pci slot, but i personally like nvidia better...just b/c, lol. if anyone can sway my opinion i'm all ears. also, crt or lcd? i'll be taking this to my friends house randomly for games and such. and i know crt's are better for games, but an lcd will be easier to lug back and forth. right now i'm heading toward a viewsonic p95f crt. 19", it's sweet....$500, but sweet. anyway, sound i think will be the sound blaster audigy 2 platinum ex. i'm dropping a lot of cash on this (eventually) so if anyone has suggestions about what to get, i'd like to hear them.//

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Unbodied unsouled unheard unseenLet the gift be grown in the time to call our ownTruth is natural like a wind that blowsFollow the direction no matter where it goesLet the truth blow like a hurricane through me

ey, the video card to chose would be Radeon over nvidia right now. Nividia cards have been recently poor performers off course as we've seen which Radeon still retains the best vid card crown. If you play HL anti-aliasing will not work on Half-Life 2 from the Nividia cards. On to monitors, LCD's are shithouse for games unless u spend big dollars on a exceptionally great one therefore certainly stick with any CRT. Motion, clarity, contrast and brightness aren't good compred to the crt's i have seen.Onto the sound card it's up to u, i find SB 5.1 s/c os good enuff. I only see a reason to go further if ur PC will be for musical/recording reasons.Hope i helped ya out.

MOBO: Nice move with that motherboard. Also the dual NIC, one GigaLAN is very nice to have.

PROCESSOR: If you want to go with the Barton, I saw it at newegg for about 180$.

CASE: Damn, expensive case, looks nice and has nice features. Also definitely good choice on the power supply. With the case, just be sure you know what you are getting. Some shit looks sweet, but then when you get it, its cheaply made.

SOUND: Agree with D347th. And you can get a nice 4spkr1sub system for about 45-50$.

MONITOR:Damn, that is one expensive CRT. We got a good deal on a few of em, 17" black for $99 with max 1600x1200@72Hz. At that price you could buy two of them and be way cheaper than an LCD that cant even match that, and then you won't have to lug any monitor back and forth. And if you don't play your games at that high of a resolution, just go for a cheap CRT, still be sharper than an LCD, like death said.

KEYBOARD/MOUSE: Definitely do not go wireless. Also if you are a big game junkie, you may want to get a zboard that is custom placement of keys and labeling for specific games. you just replace the kb whenever you switch games.

RAM: 1gig stick of DDR RAM @ 3200 is gonna run you ~240, but if you aren't afraid to spend the money I would go with that.

hmm, as far as speakers go, i'm thinking the klipsch promedia 5.1. from what i've heard they're great, and they sell that at my work, so i get them cheap. as far as ram goes, i figured i'd be spending a lot on it, so $240 doesn't sound too too bad. i might start off with one 512, which i know i'm not utilizing the dual channel, but i'd be getting another 512 soon enough, so it'd save me money. well actually, maybe 2 256's at first, then add the 512 later. it's got enough slots, so i'll probably do that. get faster speeds too. anyway...i've seen that case in person, and it is pretty good. and for the sound card. at first i'll probably go with something good, but not over the top. but eventually i will be getting that as i do do a bit of music etc... i just have to make sure the sound card i get has optical out. and for keyboard and mouse. i was thinking of the mx700 for the mouse, it is wireless but i have only heard good things about it. however on th eother hand, i dont' wanna get fragged cuz it paused up for a second.also, i've decided to change my mobo to the asus a7n8x, which it was previously. from what i've heard, ppl have only good things to say about it.//

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Unbodied unsouled unheard unseenLet the gift be grown in the time to call our ownTruth is natural like a wind that blowsFollow the direction no matter where it goesLet the truth blow like a hurricane through me

I haven't seen that mouse but any wireless product is hopeless. Firstly interference, sometimes slightly difficult to setup the channels on some mouse's. Secondly the batteries in the mouse will last you 6 days (continuous use). The cost is bad and I've had many wireless products with short life spans.The Asus A7N8X comes in second place to the Epox 8RDA3+. Then Gigabyte probley comes after MSI.Many people chose Asus and I sometimes get sick of them saying it's a good brand and it's been around along time. Really all these boards are nearly on a par.Catch ya

yeah, the mx700, good batteries, and the holder charges it.but! now i'm getting second thoughts about my choices. now i'm thinking i should just get an opteron. from what i've seen they perform better even on 32-bit apps, and i get the extra feature of being able to run 64-bit applications. its a lot more costly, but i figure, an asus board for the opteron, the SK8N, then maybe a 2.0ghz cpu. i'd be dropping a lot more money, but i think it'd be worth it. if i wait a bit longer til the prices drop...i dunno//

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Unbodied unsouled unheard unseenLet the gift be grown in the time to call our ownTruth is natural like a wind that blowsFollow the direction no matter where it goesLet the truth blow like a hurricane through me

yee, next CPU i am getting is prob a opteron 240, i've read multiple reviews on the SK8N but i'm waiting for more NF3's to come out.I think the XP's are being put to death and AMD are pushing opteron's harder now.

after doing more research, i've decided for now that i'll probalby just end up w/ an athlon xp. opteron processors can cost 4 times as much, and they dont' always perform as good. so for now, i'll stick with that.//

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Unbodied unsouled unheard unseenLet the gift be grown in the time to call our ownTruth is natural like a wind that blowsFollow the direction no matter where it goesLet the truth blow like a hurricane through me

just another quick thing. something i had never given much thought to was the case. i basically chose the one i did for looks, but now that i look more into it, i see that obviously, there's a lot more that goes into it. things like airflow and design and whatnot. does anyone have suggestions on manufacturers for cases? or at least a good place that reviews them? i've had trouble finding reviews on cases, but have heard that antec and lian-li tend to be the best. any thoughts?//

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Unbodied unsouled unheard unseenLet the gift be grown in the time to call our ownTruth is natural like a wind that blowsFollow the direction no matter where it goesLet the truth blow like a hurricane through me

for price and quality go with either of those. I am an antec fan. If you do go with someone else, just be sure to be getting a quality power supply and not some cheap shit. there are alot of review sites. I would if you going for good quality, get antec w/ a supply that comes with atleast 2 fans.